Free Falling

I watched a man fall from space today.

I watched a man step off a ledge the size of a skateboard and jump from more than 120,000 feet without hesitation.

Some might say that it was suicidal but there was no hesitation from him. Come what may…Felix Baumgartner stepped off the ledge and into the history books.

The lesson here for us: Go after your dreams. Go after your dreams without hesitation.

Commit to them and just do it.

The most poignant image for me was when the door opened and half his body was inside the capsule and half sticking out. At that point, what was he thinking? There really was no turning back. Jumping off the ledge at that point was just something that had to be done. But seeing him get out of that capsule and stand on the ledge, gave me goose bumps.

Do or Do not. There is no try. – Yoda

This is one of my all time favourite quotes. You can’t half ass it, you either do it or you don’t. You won’t be happy with anything else.

And this stunt, this science project has so many lessons:
• Patience
• Perseverance
• Persistence
• The awesomeness of human Potential.
• The Power of dreaming big.

A man jumped from space today. Who are you not to dream BIG?

This is not something that happened overnight. It took Red Bull and Felix and his team, 5 years of preparation. It wasn’t easy. An expert parachutist, Felix has over 2500 jumps behind him and countless hours of test jumps gearing up for this feat.

The jump itself was postponed twice earlier this week due to bad weather conditions. Even on the verge of achieving his dream there were setbacks. Did that stop him? No.

“I love a challenge, and trying to become the first person to break the speed of sound in free fall is a challenge like no other.” Felix Baumgartner said, before his death-defying jump.

A lesson to all of us: Just do it…in supersonic free fall style.

“When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble, you do not think about breaking records anymore, you do not think about gaining scientific data,” he said after the jump. “The only thing you want is to come back alive.”

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

I was on pins and needles during the ascent; so many things could have gone wrong. And the problem with his face shield wasn’t helping to calm me and the millions of viewers worldwide I’m sure. It was a dangerous manoeuvre, Felix was in free fall for 4 mins, 20 secs, and although his time didn’t break the record for longest free fall, he broke at least 3 others. The record for longest free fall still belongs to 84-year-old, U.S. Air Force Captain, Joe Kittinger at 5 mins, 35 secs. Kittinger was part of the team, that made today’s feat possible.

I don’t know Felix but he has certainly inspired me to continue to go in the direction of my dreams. I’m not jumping out of any space capsules but I am going to step off the ledge of indecision. Cue “Free falling” by Tom Petty. Whatever comes my way, that’s the direction I’m heading in.